News archive

News archive - February-2017

The dramatic political developments of the past week, and the consequential and expected downgrading of SA’s investment grade to so-called junk status, is seriously bad news for the agricultural and agribusiness ....- Dr John Purchase, CEO of Agbiz

South Africa is set to harvest the second biggest maize crop on record. This comes after the National Crop Estimate Committee revised up its forecast by 3% from the previous one to 14.32 million tonnes.- Wandile Sihlobo

SA’s unusually high food price inflation was expected to drop to single digits for the first time in a year, economists predicted. The downward trend is expected to continue despite another drought being forecast for later in 2017.- Supermarket and Retailer

Amid recent calls to amend property clause in constitution to allow expropriation of farmland without compensation, one cannot help but wonder whether original purpose of provision is not being lost amongst political rhetoric... - Theo Boshoff, Manager: Legal Intelligence, Agbiz

Although some commodities such as winter grains and prone fruits saw increased activity in the fourth quarter of 2016, South Africa’s agricultural sector remained in recession.- Wandile Sihlobo, Agbiz Economist